Miller Magazine Issue 109 / January 2019

66 INTERVIEW MILLER / JANUARY 2019 Our works are designed to keep all areas of flour con- sumed under the close monitor and to bring the right product to the right consumer according to consumer needs. Can you provide information about technology used in the factory, production capacity, and your brands? When we bought the factory in 2006, its capacity was 250 tons/day. In time, we increased this amount to 300 tons and later to 350 tons. In October 2018, we mo- dernized our machines, and with significant help from Takozlar Machinery, we increased the capacity to 700 tons/day within eighty-five days. Also, in time, we incre- ased the wheat storage area to 20,000 tons and the flour storage area to 5,000 tons. In the selection of technology and machinery, we utilized from Takozlar Machinery. Thanks to the com- pany’s cooperation and expertise, we worked with the best companies in Turkey. That’s why our factory turned into one of the leading facilities both in Turkey and in the world in the productivity and quality when conside- ring the length of the roller mill, mesh, grinding tonnage, yield, ash amount, and energy consumption. The production starts with the preparation of wheat and then goes with tempering, grinding, the instant che- ck of grinded flour, and packaging. That means the fac- tory is fully automated and computer-controlled. Speaking of our brands, in fact, Nar Flour is our brand. The name of the company is Halim Kırtız Food Industry. Apart from Nar Flour, we have brands like Nar Tanesi, Yaver, Perge, Kermen, and Sütun. The reason we have so many brands is to avoid confusion of products in dif- ferent categories. How do you navigate as a company in the face of innovation and conditions that the market brings? What kinds of works does your research and develop- ment staff carry out? The flour sector is a highly dynamic market, and the needs of consumers have been constantly changing. Wit- hout missing and being away from these changes, we try to be in close dialogue with the producers and unders- tand them very well. In line with demands, R&D staff shows efforts to produce the best by working on literatu- re and the final products. Do you have any works on the frozen product mar- ket that has been growing rapidly in recent years? All around the world, the market for frozen products has a significant turnover. In Turkey, frozen products are usually seen in the industrial area and recently in mar- kets. Although the market share of frozen products is very small, there is no doubt that the market share will grow. That’s why we try to provide the right product to the producers of the frozen product according to the results that we get after we keep fermented and unfer- mented products in different times at -20 C in our test section located at R&D department. Do you have a plan for acquisition or to have a foreign partner? Yes, we have such an idea. This issue has been always on our agenda. We talk with our friends inside and out- side of the sector about acquisition or having a local or foreign partner. All of us are open to this idea and want to put into practice because it is very clear the golden rule of our industry is “Productivity.” In our industry, the idle capacity is more than fifty per- cent. In fact, this figure reveals the fact that how much we are away from productivity. In fact, many sectors have the case of idle capacity in Turkey. Although we speak of acquisition or foreign partner continually and everybody accepts this issue, we could not accomplish this. The fact that local companies do not have an insti- tutional structure and are family-companies makes mer- ger and acquisition difficult. Nonetheless, as time goes by and competition condition hardens, I believe that companies will move to think of merger or acquisition economically. - Mr. Kırtız, apart from your duty in the factory, you are the deputy chairman of Anadolu Flour Industria- lists’ Association and a member of Antalya Organized Industrialists and Business People Association. Can you talk about the importance of these NGOs for the sector? NGOs are a must for the world, particularly business world. The reason is that the public sector cannot mas- ter all of your problems. NGOs gathered all problems of